Republican Rep. Dave Reichert maintained his narrow lead over Democrat Darcy Burner Thursday in their close race for the 8th Congressional District.

Burner was still leading in King County, which makes up about 80 percent of the district, but Reichert was chipping away at her advantage there. He was winning handily in the part of Pierce County that makes up about 20 percent of the district.

Still, his lead was not enough to guarantee the former King County sheriff a win. Elections divisions in King and Pierce counties were still receiving ballots in the mail, and an estimated 93,000 ballots — — about a third of the expected district turnout — remained to be counted.

Burner, a former Microsoft manager who lost narrowly to Reichert in 2006, was nowhere near conceding Thursday. Her spokesman, Sandeep Kaushik, acknowledged the trend but said there were so many ballots left to count that it was impossible to know how the race would shake out.